The Demons Inside Us
by Magillicuddy
Summary: Heartbroken Damon should know better than to torture himself by watching the descendants of Katherine Pierce. But that doesn't stop him from jumping off the bridge to rescue a little girl named Elena who looks exactly like her. Faced with the role of fatherhood, he sets a trap for his long lost love, but will he have the heart to carry it out?


_Chapter One_

Damon Salvatore could think of a million things to do, rather than walk the old Wickery Bridge near midnight. Sadly, none of those things appealed to him. The only thing that made him happy was the prospect of seeing the mysterious Katherine Pierce once more. He hadn't seen her for nearly one hundred and fifty years, but her image was seared into his memory as though it hadn't been more then a day. She invaded his thoughts and his dreams to the point where he wasn't sure if he was even capable of original ones anymore. It felt as though his mere existence was for her in some way.

The worst part was that it didn't even seem to matter to her. He'd kept an eye on her descendants as the years passed, in the hope that she was close by, watching them. It was a foolish notion, and one in which he should have abandoned long ago. It was clear to Damon that Katherine couldn't give a damn about her legacy. He'd known from the moment she'd turned him into a vampire and fled shortly after that she only looked out for herself. Turning Damon and his younger brother Stefan had only happened because of Katherine's selfishness.

Damon had thought about dying plenty of times, if only to end his misery. He hated his brother and hadn't talked to him in what would be considered a lifetime to most humans. They'd parted on bad terms, and Damon had been looking after Katherine's descendants ever since. Which brought him back to the present.

He had no idea why Grayson and Miranda Gilbert had taken their young daughter out for a drive in the middle of the night. Whatever the reason was, it seemed pretty urgent because they'd left their house with a sense of urgency that didn't sit well with Damon. Normally he wouldn't have paid them any attention, only watched from afar, but this felt different. And they had their young daughter with them.

Stefan would think he was going soft if he knew what his older brother was doing. And perhaps he was; maybe it was his own selfishness that made him want to watch over the girl. If anything happened to her, it would mean the end of Katherine's line. It would also end any interest she might have in what was left of her family. And Damon couldn't have that.

That was his last thought before a sickening crash interrupted the somber silence of the night so far. He turned his head and watched in horror as the Gilbert family car suddenly swerved on the bridge and broke though the heavy metal of the safety rail on the bridge. Their car plunged nose first into the water below. With his vampire hearing, he heard the wife, Miranda, scream as they went underwater. Grayson was calmer, doing his best to check on their sleeping daughter, who only awoke once they were submerged in the water.

Damon didn't hesitate. He threw off his jacket and dove into the water. He saw the car immediately and started swimming toward it. Once he came upon it, he barely even registered the sight of Miranda sitting in her seat, her eyes closed. He knew instantly she was dead. The man was desperately pounding on his window in order to get it open, but it wasn't budging. Grayson seemed to know this because he turned his attention to the little girl, whose dark eyes were wide with fear. That was all it took for Damon to use his vampire strength to lift the back door open and throw it aside in order to get to the humans in the car.

Grayson had his daughter out of her car seat by this time. When he noticed Damon, he thrust the girl into his hands and started making a gesture that Damon knew meant he was to take her, and only her to the surface. _I can take both of you, _he wanted to say, but the water prevented him. Besides, the girl was already starting to lose consciousness and the man didn't look far behind. There was no time for arguments; if anyone was to be saved, Damon needed to act now.

He tightened his hold on the girl and swam to the surface as quickly as he could. Once they broke the surface both of them began coughing and gasping for breath. Damon started whispering reassurances to her as he made his way to solid ground. The girl didn't do anything to fight him; she seemed to be in shock.

Not even a minute later they reached solid ground. Damon laid the girl gently on the soft grass and made sure she sat up straight so she couldn't get any more water into her lungs. As he squatted down beside her to ask if she was okay, he nearly fell back in shock as he got a good look at her for the first time.

Even at the age of three, the girl looked exactly like her ancestor. She had Katherine's eyes, nose, mouth…in fact her whole face looked like a miniature version of Katherine's. He knew it was an inappropriate time to wonder at the possibilities of this, especially when the girl's eyes clouded over with tears as she looked at Damon and asked, "Where's Mommy and Daddy?"

If there was ever a time when he wanted to turn off his humanity, this would be it. How could he sit there and look at her and explain that her parents were dead? She looked so fragile that he feared the slightest movement could break her.

The girl continued looking at him. Pleading with him to tell her the truth. Finally Damon took a deep breath and said, "They're in Heaven now."

The girl seemed to understand what this meant because her bottom lip trembled and more tears fell from those devastating eyes. She began to sob and cry as Damon had never heard anyone cry before. And before he knew what was happening, the girl fell into his body and held on for dear life as she began to cry for the parents that had been ripped from her too soon.

Damon wasn't sure how long he held her in his lap. It felt like forever until her sobs began to soften a little. She began to tremble in his arms, and he suddenly remembered the jacket he'd taken off right before he dove into the water.

It was only then that he heard the sirens off in the distance that were headed in their direction. No doubt someone had heard the commotion or seen the destruction of the bridge and called the police. He took that moment to scoop the girl into his arms and held her close to him and he used his vampire speed to gather his jacket and get away from the scene before anyone could see him.

As he returned to his family's old boarding house and laid the girl in one of the many beds upstairs, an idea suddenly came upon him. An opportunity had fallen into his lap, one that he could not pass up. This girl was the spitting image of Katherine Pierce. She was an unusual commodity. If he could get the word out to her that she had a doppelganger out there, and was living with Damon, maybe he could get her back into town. The thought of it was almost too good to be true.

Feeling better than he had in decades, he left the girl alone in the bed and quietly shut the door behind him. No doubt the police would be looking for her, and calling up any relatives she might have. Little did they know that if Damon had his way, that little girl would be the key to everything he'd been searching for.


End file.
